.Boulder is a city of
100,000, elevation 5,400 feet
(1650 meters), located thirty miles northwest of Denver. It's just
under
an hour's drive from
Denver
International
Airport, known here as DIA, though its official airport code
is
DEN.
It's also an hour's drive to Estes
Park, gateway to Rocky Mountain
National
Park. Boulder is surrounded by a wonderful greenbelt with 120
miles of trails. The front range of the Rocky Mountains rises
on
the
west side of town. The entire region is a paradise for hiking, cycling,
rock climbing and almost every kind of outdoor activity except surfing.

Our community is a paradoxical mix of left-leaning
politically-correct
environmentalists, tech entrepreneurs, and yuppies. Righteous
bicyclists coexist uneasily with SUVs. Once known as a hippie mecca,
the remaining hippies subsist on trust funds ("trustafarians").
It is home to innumerable environmental and spiritual groups (mostly
new
age and eastern-oriented; fundamentalist Christians are politely
directed
to Colorado Springs). For diversity we have Soldier
of Fortune Magazine. Bumper stickers range from "Free Tibet"
and
"My
Karma ran over your Dogma" to "Focus on your own damn family." For
more, read The Gore-Tex Vortex.

The weather is sunny and dry most of the
time— we get as much
sunshine
as San Diego, but we get occasional afternoon thunderstorms in late
spring
and summer. At least we did before the 2000-2003 drought
years. Winters are sunny and dry with occasional snow that melts
quickly. (Again there are exceptions: in 2006-7 we received 108 inches
(2.74 meters) of snow by February 14.)
Winter daytime temperatures often reach the fifties; sixties are not
uknown.
Nights are frosty but rarely bitter cold. It's pleasant most of the
time,
but we can get sudden dramatic weather changes. Mother nature can turn
into mommie
dearest in moments, particularly in the mountains, but she
rarely
stays
that way for long. Hikers should be prepared. View the last twenty-four
hours in Boulder at 9th and Pearl (two blocks west of the above
photos),
facing southwest towards the Flatirons, by clicking here.

Boulder
keeps cropping up on lists of best places to live,
and Boulderites
get pretty smug about it. These lists evidently sell magazines;
Americans
are always searching for the land over the rainbow where the grass
grows
greener. According to the Daily
Camera, Boulder has been listed in the following
magazines in
the
last four years (1999-2003; actual articles in boldface): Men's
Journal (May 2003) "Best overall," Runner's
World, "Best running city," Self:
"Thinnest city in America" (add about a pound for each mile you go east
of Boulder), Sunset:
"The West's best city" and "No. 1 green & clean city," Seventeen,
"Top 10 places for teens," Forbes,
No. 4 ranking in "Best places," Health,
"10 Fittest cities," Outside,
"Best place to be an uberjock" (our former home, Encinitas, California,
was runner-up), Redbook,
"Top ten great cities for working mothers," Shape,
No. 3 ranking in "Fittest city." Something, it seems, for everyone, as
long as you can afford the rent (somewhat pricey, but much less than
New York or
San Francisco).

It's not all startups. Google is building a campus for 1500 people on the corner of Pearl and 30th Streets. It should be easy to recruit employees,
especially Google programmers who now pay fortunes to live in San
Francisco cubby holes and spend an hour or more each way riding a bus--
albeit a luxury bus with WiFi. Most will be able to find places
within cycling distance. The new campus has generated quite a bit
of controversy. Some fear that we'll become more like San Francisco,
which is losing its once-celebrated cultural diversity to ever
increasing rents and gentrification. But unlike San Francisco we are
building lots of new housing, which should help. I can attest to the
increased rents. Our (company) lease has ended and we've had to find
new space. Since our previous lease three years ago (a relative
bargain), some big west coast companies have bought up most of
Boulder's commercial real estate and jacked up the rents-- a lot.
Ouch.

Boulder's
numbered streets run north-south with numbers
increasing
as you travel east. Fourth street abuts the mountains north of
downtown.
Broadway is an important north-south thoroughfare that takes the place
of twelvth street north of the university. 28th Street (Route 36) and
30th
street are the other major north-south thoroughfares. Pearl
Street is a major east-west thoroughfare, interrupted by the pedestrian
Mall between 11th and 15th Streets. There is a series of alphabetical
east-west
streets on the north side (where we live) with botanical names,
starting
with Alpine, 1/2 mile north of Pearl, and continuing to Violet, near
the
northern edge of town. East-west street addresses correspond to the
cross street number times 100.

Downtown parking meters
operate from 9AM to 6PM Monday through
Saturday,
but downtown parking garages are free on Saturdays and Sundays. The
parking
garage on Spruce and 15th (one block north of Pearl Street) is free on
weekday evenings. Read the small print on the Parking signs. No parking
is allowed Friday and Saturday nights in some neighborhoods east of the
Pearl Street Mall.

Drink plenty of water,
especially if you've come from sea
level. Thanks
to Boulder's high elevation (5400 feet) and low humidity, it's easy to
get dehydrated. Symptoms are headache and fatigue.

.Boulder's
environs provide endless opportunities for landscape photography. I
encourage
you to look at my photography pages
by clicking on the logo on the right.

Boulder has an excllent public transit system. Learn more
about
buses, bike paths, and other options from GoBoulder.
NextBus
gives
realtime bus locations and schedules.

Maps
Maps Maps! The city of Boulder has a page
with some terrific links to maps for biking, hiking, and transit. The
PDF
Bicycle
& Pedestrian Map (1.65 MB) it the best available
Boulder street
map; it's particularly nice because it uses vector graphics—
it can be
enlarged without loss of detail. Well worth downloading and printing.

Stephen
White's picture gallery — The famous
(frequent
visitor to the New
York
Times best seller list) mystery writer's snapshots of Boulder (mostly)
with excerpts from his novels. Click here for local color.

Events
and cool things to do

Pearl Street and its bookstores
There are nine bookstores between 9th and 18th streets. The cross
street
is the address divided by 100. From west to east: Trident (940;
new/used;
strong in art), High Crimes (946; mystery novels), Stage House (1039
second
floor; used/antiquarian/art prints; well worth ascending the flight of
stairs), Boulder
Bookstore
(1107; huge and locally-owned), Left Hand (1200; left-wing
revolutionary),
Lighthouse Metaphysical (1201), Borders (1600), Beat (1713).
new/used/records;
the spirit of Kerouac lives here even though he never visited Boulder),
and Red Letter (1737; used; charmingly disorganized). You'll pass
numerous
street performers. Also of interest: Bart's (1015; CD's and LP's;
new/used;
"Without music life would be a mistake"). Of course there are countless
clothing stores and
boutiques
that my gender prevents me from noticing. There's a Barns &
Noble
next
to Whole Foods between 28th and 30th streets— beyond walking
distance.
Three mega-bookstores (one locally-owned) in a city of 100,000 isn't
bad.

Banjo Billy's Bus Tours
A 90 minute history tour of Boulder Colorado from an old
school bus
tricked out to look like a traveling hillbilly shack. Hear
ghost
tales, crime stories, and history. Boulder's answer to Boston's Duck
tours.(720) 771-0087.

Boulder
Museum of Contemporary Arts (BMOCA)
13th Street between Arapahoe and Canyon, next to the Tea
House.
Exhibits a variety of contemporary artists and photographers. Has a
small auditorium used by a resident theater company and for lectures.

Boulder Philharmonic
Orchestra An outstanding orchestra for
a city the size of Boulder. Performs monthly in beautiful Macky
Auditorium on the CU campus.

Boulder
Public Library — in a dramatic
building spanning Boulder
Creek,
just west of 9th between Arapahoe and Canyon (2 blocks south of Pearl
Street).
Check their calendar
for their outstanding schedule of films, concerts, lectures, and art
openings.

Colorado
Music Festival A wonderful music
festival held in the
Chautauqua
Auditorium, a hundred year old barn with superb acoustics two miles
south
of downtown, starting late June.

The Dairy Center for the Arts
Walnut and 26th Street. A large center featuring art and photography
exhibits, dance, music, and drama performances, classes, and more.

Denver
Boulderites often forget there's a city nearby. It has a splendid Performing
Arts Center. The Denver
Art
Museum, Museum of Nature and Science
and Zoo
are well worth a visit.
www.artstozoo.org
is an excellent source of cultural information. LoDo, a district of
restaurants,
galleries, boutiques and lofts west of downtown, is undergoing
restoration.
It reminds us of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter a few years back. A free
bus
runs along 16th Street from the train station, through LoDo and
downtown,
to the Art Museum and State Capitol. Cherry Creek, about three miles
southeast
of downtown (take Speer Boulevard), is a major shopping area that
resembles
La Jolla without the ocean (La Jolla wins). The Mizel
Center for Arts and Culture (part of the Denver Jewish
Community
Center)
near Cherry Creek has some excellent exhibits and theater. The Tattered
Cover Bookstore (LoDo and Cherry Creek) is awsome. The Denver
Art
Dealers
Association has a calendar
of art exhibits and openings (yes, DADA does Denver). The RTD
B
bus runs frequently between Boulder and Denver, especially during rush
order.

Open
studios See the work of Boulder's
amazing arts
community.
First two weekends of October.

Farmer's
market Wednesday
mornings
and Saturdays until 2 PM on 13th street between Arapahoe and Canyon, by
the Dushanbe Teahouse. Great for Saturday lunch and for people and
produce
watching. Mostly organic (the people as well as the produce). Open
April-October.

McGuckin
Hardware Over 200,000 items. Widget
heaven. Where real
men shop. Arapahoe Ave. between 26th
and 28th, about a
mile
east of downtown.

Boulder
Outdoor Cinema Friday and Saturday
nights behind the
Boulder
Museum of Contemporary Arts, 1750
13th St. between Arapahoe and Canyon, starting May 30. Times
vary
from
8 to 9 PM.

Moondance
Film Festival May 15-18 at Chautauqua
Park. Logically,
if Robert Redford is behind Sundance, then Moondance in
environmentally-obsessed
Boulder (pay no attention to those SUVs) must be the work of Robert
Greenford.

Rembrandt Yard
A visual
arts center at the corner of Spruce and 13th Street. (across from the
Boulderado) featuring art galleries, working artist studios, and class
room space dedicated to a variety of educational programs.

Twenty-Ninth
Street About a mile east of downtown,
bounded by 28th and 30th streets (logically!), Arapahoe
Avenue,
and Pearl St. Think of it as Boulder's second downtown with free
parking, above and under ground. Unlike the outdated, boring Crossroads
Mall it replaced, it has a contemporary outdoorsy "downtown" feel. It
got off to a slow start due to its relative isolation (several blocks
from housing and offices) and movie theater construction delays, but
business has been steadily improving. It contains

a
variety of retail stores including Apple,
Anthropologie (woman's clothing),
Borders (its coffee shop has a great view), Home Depot, and Mont
Bell (outdoor gear).

Every
Memorial Day weekend the world-famous Bolder
Boulder 10k race is run betweenBoulder and its twin sister city.You
guessed it. Bolder.

Hiking/outdoor
recreation

Red
Rock and Mt. Sanitas trails

northwest
of downtown

.Webcam views can be handy
before setting out
on hikes or photographic trips. Mountain weather can be very different
from weather here in sheltered Boulder. Colorado
Live Web Cam Directory

Open
space & mountain parks maps — Links to
detailed hiking trail
maps
and trailhead information. Great for map freaks. Small portions of two
of the maps are shown on the right, above and below. The above right
portion
shows the Red Rock and Mt. Sanitas trails, both a short walk west of
downtown.
The lower right portion includes the University of Colorado (just south
of downtown), Chautauqua Park (very popular in-town trailhead), and
NCAR
(National Center for Atmospheric Research — another popular
trailhead),
and the Flatirons— our signature mountains. Unfortunately
these are
JPEGs
of JPEGs, so they're not as clear as I'd like. A clearer version is
available
for sale as a single map. There's much more on the site.

Clark
and
Lynda Chapman's hikes near Boulder — Superb
descriptions of some
fabulous
hikes in the nearby mountains. Very detailed page with topo maps; takes
a while to load. Click here
for hikes closer to their home near Nederland (above Boulder).

ProTrails.com
from Dave Schwartz here in Boulder has an excellent collection
of
hikes near Boulder as well as elsewhere in Colorado, Utah, California,
and Florida. Excellent resource; strongly recommended.

Favorite Boulder
walks

Trails
from Chautauqua and NCARsouthwest
of downtown.

Mt.
Sanitas/Red Rocks
(trailhead on Mapleton Ave, west of 4th)— A steep ascent up
Mt.
Sanitas
(north of Mapleton) is rewarded with spectacular views of Boulder and
the
continental divide. Gentler trails are also available and you can do a
loop. The Red Rocks (south of Mapleton) is a short easy hike with a
nice
view of downtown. You can reach it from downtown via the Boulder Creek
trail, using the Canyon Boulevard underpass.

Boulder Creek trail—
Ten miles long from the prairie to the mountains. Passes two blocks
south
of downtown. Any part of this shaded walkway is delightful. From
downtown,
the stretch from the Dushanbe Teahouse (13th Street) to beyond Eban
Fine
Park (4th street) is particularly recommended. As good for people
watching
as for nature. The Canyon Boulevard underpass at the west end of Eban
Fine
Park provides access to the Red Rocks.

Chautauqua
Park (south of Baseline, just west of
9th)— Gateway to the
Flatirons.
You can hike an hour or all day on of the extensive network of trails
(see
topo map on the right). A nice trail map is available at the ranger
station.
The Chautauqua auditorium (venue of the Colorado
Music Festival and other excellent events) and Dining
Hall are worth checking out.

NCAR
(from downtown, go south on Broadway, turn right on Table Mesa Dr. and
take it all the way to the end and park near the building, featured in
Woody Allen's Sleeper) Trailhead for the Mesa trail (you can go north
towards
Chautauqua or south towards Eldorado Springs) and for ascending Bear
Peak,
South Boulder Peak, and Green Mountain.

Eldorado Springs
Drive,
about five miles south of downtown, west of Broadway (Rte. 93). The
South
Mesa trailhead on the north side leads to the scenic Homestead, Tohee,
Mesa, and Big Bluestem trails— several loop hikes are
possible. The
Mesa
trail connects with the Shadow Canyon trail, which leads to Bear Peak
and
South Boulder Peak. The Doudy Draw trailhead on the south side of
Eldorado
Springs Dr. leads to gentler trails.

Getaways

Beyond Boulder, there are plenty of
fabulous
places
to visit in Colorado and in neigboring New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
I've
added a section on
travel
(mostly links) to my Photographic technique page. Here are a few of my
favorites.

Grand Teton National Park in
Western Wyoming, a day's drive
from
Boulder, has some of the most dramatic scenery in the Rocky Mountains.
Photographers will appreciate Miles Hecker's outstanding Grand
Teton National Park Photo Map.

Colorado Ski Resorts, famously
expensive in the winter, offer
good vacation value in the summer— great hiking and
photography and a
number of music festivals. Here are a few fun sites: The
Best of Vail (nicely opinionated restaurant reviews, ski and
hiking
trails) (I'll add more as I find them.)

Recommended
lodging

Lodging in
Boulder can be rather
expensive.
That's the price of living in a beautiful, fashionable and prosperous
community.
Budget accomodations can be found at the fringes of town. It gets more
expensive closer to Boulder's vibrant downtown. Boulderlodging.com
and the Convention
and Visitor's Bureau have fairly comprehensive lists. You can
find
more on Clark Chapman's or Dick
Gilbert's lists.

Foot of the
Mountain
Motel A charming rustic motel at the foot of
Boulder Canyon,
just 12 minutes walk from downtown Boulder. Very reasonable rates for
Boulder. Doesn't
have air conditioning; may be an issue during occasional heat waves
June through
September.
200 West Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80302
303-442-5688,
303-442-5719
(fax). Location of Stephen White's recent mystery novel, The
Program. Could it be the next Bates motel?

The
Flatirons: Boulder's
signature mountains. Near the Chautauqua Park trailhead.

Boulder
University Inn
1632 Broadway, just south of Arapahoe. 303-417-1700.
The
only budget motel close to both downtown and the university.

The
Bradley Inn
2040
16th Street (at Spruce), Boulder, Colorado 80302 (a little east of the
Pearl Street Mall, close to some of our favorite restaurants: Foolish
Craig's and Moongatge). A large, elegant B&B with jacuzzis in
many
rooms. $145-195.

Briar
Rose Bed &
Breakfast
2151 Arapahoe Ave., in a charming old house about 1/2 mile
east
of downtown, facing Naropa University. One of the innkeepers is a Zen
monk. The breakfast is organic, as you would expect. Very
Boulder. $129-169. 303.442.3007
• Toll-free:
888.786.8440.

Boulder Broker Inn
555 30th St., one block south of Baseline Rd. Nice accomodations just
south
of the university. Main stop for the Boulder SuperShuttle. The
restaurant is known for large multi-course meals
that include dessert and a complimentary bottomless bowl of
peel-and-eat
shrimp. A wee bit outside our diet.

Boulder
Marriott 2660 Canyon Blvd.
303-440-8877
• Toll-Free: 1-888-238-2178 About
a mile east of downtown, near McGuckin Hardware.
Easy to miss because it's off the street, behind some
businesses.

Millenium Harvest House
1345 28th St. (about a mile east of downtown).. Large hotel
with
pools, conference rooms and.meeting spaces. Considerably less expensive
than comparable downtown hotels.

..The
image on the right was taken in Chautauqua Park, about 1/2 mile from
the
trailhead, well inside the city limits.

.

Favorite
restaurants

Boulder
has a wide variety of excellent restaurants. Most are
vegetarian-friendly. We may never
get around to trying them all. There are lots of omissions; I've
concentrated
on downtown and its surroundings. We still miss north county San
Diego's
superb Mexican restaurants. These selections reflect our
taste— we try
to avoid rich foods and rarely eat red meat; others may have different
tastes. Chaçun à son gout. Prices: $ =
inexpensive; $$ =
moderate; $$$ = expensive; $$$$ = Flagstaff
House, reputed to be the
reason
the emperor of Japan visited Colorado. We'll try it again the
next time the stock market tricks us into thinking we're wealthy.

Central

The
Mediterranean ("The Med") Walnut
Street at 10th
(one block south
of
Pearl St.). Inspired eclectic food from the Mediterranean: Spanish
(tapas
and paella), Italian (pasta and gourmet pizzas), Greek,
Provinçal
and some very creative blends. Their spaghettini bucaniera (spicy
seafood
pasta) is to die for, not from: flavorful but not rich. Good value;
casual;
very popular; noisy; long waits during peak hours. The new section
(added in 2010) is a little quieter. $$-$$$.

Cheesecake
Factory Pearl Street Mall at 14th (on
the mall near
the
courthouse). Amazingly good food for a chain. Generous portions and
excellent
value. We've never had room for desert (cheesecake is verboten
on
our diets, anyway). Gigantic menu, but you have to get used to (are you
ready?) advertising. Long wait during peak hours. $$-$$$.

Moongate Asian Bistro
1628 Pearl St. (1 block east of the Mall, near Borders). (720)
406-8888. Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese cuisine. Opened in 2005. One of our
favorites. Outstanding value. $$

The
Dushanbe Teahouse
13th Street between Canyon and
Arapahoe
(three blocks south of Pearl). A classic from the day it was built by
craftsmen
from Tadjikstan. Eclectic, spicy, international food. Not as crowded as
Pearl Street Restaurants. Service can be somewhat slow. Hangout of
mystery
writer
Stephen
White.
$$.

The
Hungry Toad 2453 N. Broadway at North
(1/2
mile north of
Pearl).
Neighborhood British pub with decent food. $-$$.

Riffs
1115 Pearl Street (on the mall) (303) 440-6699 Very
fine food: they have a real
chef. Smallish portions designed to be shared; good value.
$$$

The
Rio Grande 11th Street at Walnut (one
block south of
Pearl).
Decent Mexican food (improved since we arrived here) and reputedly
strong
margaritas (limit of three per customer). Popular. (The singles bar is
a madhouse.) $$.

Jax Fish
House Pearl Street
between 9th and 10th. Excellent seafood in a trendy, crowded,
offensively
noisy setting. The food is almost good enough to offset the noise.
Earplugs recommended. Long
waits during peak hours; no reservations. $$-$$$.

Sherpa's
825 Walnut St.,
next
to Di Napoli. Excellent Indian/Nepalese restaurant. Pleasant ambience
in a charming Victorian house. They even have some
Tibetan entrées. (Boulderites
are
connoisseurs
of Tibetan spirituality, but prefer cuisine from milder, more
agriculture-friendly
climes.) Good venue for showing off
Boulder's
charms. $$-$$$. 303-440-7151.

Coffeehouses
(Too many for a complete list): Pearl
Street from West to East: Trident
Booksellers and Cafe (10th): adjacent to
new/used
bookstore.
Intellectuals of all ages. The Cup (16th). Laughing
Goat (17th) has music
or poetry most evenings. Several
have free wireless
Internet hot
spots. Of course there's that ubiquitous Seattle-based chain
you
can find everywhere.

Neighborhood Off the beaten path but worth
the treck. You'll need to drive, take a bus, or bicycle if
you're staying downtown. See also Twenty-Ninth
Street.

Agave
Mexican Bistro2845 28th Street. Very
nice upscale Mexican cuisine. Usuanly not too crowded. $$-$$$.Zolo
Grill 2525 Arapahoe Ave., next to McGuckin's—
2/3 mile east of downtown, near Naropa. Excellent eclectic southwestern
cuisine in a lively but noisy ambience. You can make a meal of their
bowl
of tortilla soup. Crowded and noisy during peak hours. $-$$$.

Tandoori
Grill
Broadway at Table Mesa, South
Boulder, about
three
miles south of downtown. Our favorite Indian restaurant. Superb samosas
and much more. $$. We also like the Himalayas on 14th Street just
north
of Pearl (downstairs next to the Cheesecake factory), which has a
dinner buffet. $$. Boulder's
Indian
restaurants have excellent lunch buffets for around $7.

Thai
Kitchen
28th Street between Mapleton and Valmont. 303-442-0391.
Excellent
Thai food, well worth the trip from downtown. A gem worthy of
discovery, nearly as good as my
favorite place in San Jose. Quiet. $$

China
Gourmet
Broadway at
Quince,
North Boulder, about two miles north of downtown. Hidden behind Lucky's
Market. Superb neighborhood
restaurant—
not a tourist in sight. Basic ambience but consistently excellent
cuisine.
$-$$.

Bacco
Trattoria & Mozzarella Bar
1200 Yarmouth Ave., corner Broadway. 303-442-3899.
The idea
of a "mozzarella bar" seems a bit silly to me, but the Italian food is
excellent, the ambience is pleasant, and the prices are reasonable. The
pasta is definitely al dente. $$-$$$

Kathmandu
28th at Walnut. (Website is for Nederland location.)
Excellent Indian/Nepalese cuising. Quiet. Not overly crowded. Buffet Friday nights. On the
former location of the Golden Lotus Chinese restaurant, which we miss.
$-$$.

Jai
Ho 1915 28th St. (next to Office Depot).
Features south Indian food (dosas, idli, sambar, etc.), which
is hard to find in Boulder. Some items are unfamiliar (most Indian
restaurants have northern-- especially Punjabi-- cuisine.)
Uncrowded. Easy to miss if you're driving down 28th Street.
We hope they survive. $$.

Restaurant-related
websites

Daily
Camera restaurant reviews Recent reviews of
restaurants in the region (with 25 miles of Boulder).
Boulder
Weekly's
Best of Boulder: Food Valuable, though the
votes are occasionally
rigged. In 2000
the noisy Mountain Sun Brewery, which has benches— few chairs
with
backs—
was voted "most Romantic." Apparently they had a "one vote one beer"
policy.
I agree with about 80% of the calls. Pretty
good
considering... The Daily Camera also had a Best
Eats page.
Culinary Colorado Colorado-oriented, but not Colorado-exclusive,
blog about restaurants, food and wine events, occasional menus and
recipes and food-related news.First
Bite Boulder
An annual event (November) where many of Boulder's upscale
restaurants offer a prix fixe dinner at a special price. Includes a restaurant
list with links.Dining Out
(Click on Boulder neighborhood.) Large list of area restaurants
with good descriptions (though definitely not critical reviews).

Getting
to Boulder

By
car from
Denver International
Airport

From
the
airport,
take Pena Boulevard towards Denver. Go west on I-70. Take a right on
I-270
(not very clear on the map). Continue straight past I-25, where I-270
becomes US 36. On entering Boulder, US 36 turns north and becomes 28th
Street,
the main commercial thoroughfare. Pearl Street crosses 28th street
about
a mile to the north. The Pearl Street pedestrian mall is
between
11th and 15th streets, about a mile west of 28th St.

Take the same route to return to the
airport. Watch the signs carefully around
I-25, I-76, and I-270. Continue straight to I-270, then I-70 (avoiding
the I-225 exit), then Pena Blvd. to the airport.

The E-470
toll road connects Pena Blvd. with 96th
Street, just north of US 36.
It's not worth the bother most of the time. (It's only a few miles
shorter and has three stops
with $6.00 tolls.) But it can save a lot of time during rush hour,
especially when heading to the
airport..

By
bus from the
airport

The
RTD AB bus
leaves
approximately twenty minutes past each hour. For a detailed schedule,
check
the RTD
website, and follow
the
links to skyRide,
AB
(W-Bound means Airport to Boulder; why can't they just SAY it?).
SkyRide
buses leave DIA from level 5 -the same level where you pick up your
bags.
You can board skyRide at one of two locations: lane 3 outside door 506
at the West Terminal or lane 5 outside door 511 at the East Terminal.
Just
look for the skyRide sign and RTD shelter. Fare to Boulder is $13, and
it
takes about 1 hour 20 minutes to get to the downtown terminal at 14th
and
Walnut streets, walking distance to downtown hotels and B&B's.

By limo from the
airport

I've received some positive recommendations for Green
Ride Boulder, but I haven't tried it.

The
Boulder
SuperShuttle,
303-227-0000, leaves at least every hour at about 10 past the hour
between
7:10AM and 11:10PM from gate 504, Island 4, and takes under an hour to
get to Boulder Broker Inn, on the south side of town (near 30th and
Baseline).
Cost is $27. They can take you to your
destination for $33. The shuttle desk is
on the west side of level 5 (the main level). You can usually make
arrangements
when you arrive. Returning to the airport, the
SuperShuttle
leaves the Broker Inn every hour on the hour between 4AM and 10PM. You
can arrange to be picked up from your hotel. 2013
update: SuperShuttle service is not as good as it used to be: shuttles
often stop at residences between Boulder and the airport. The bus is
now usually faster.

Panoramic
view
from the Mesa trail, south of Boulder, March 3, 2001 (Flatirons in
center)